Ahmedabad: Was Sabarmati jail tunnel dug for Abu Bashar's escape?

Ahmedabad: Preliminary investigation by the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) has revealed that the serial blasts accused who were involved in digging the tunnel at the Sabarmati jail were motivated by Mufti Abu Bashar. In fact, the police say that Bashar, who is one of the key accused of Ahmedabad serial blast case, had also planned to escape through the tunnel.

Besides Bashar, DCB sleuths on Tuesday questioned another blasts accused, Hafiz Hussain Mulla, who is a trained engineer. From their questioning at Sabarmati jail, DCB sleuths learnt that Bashar had not only intended to escape but had also planned to reorganize the Indian Mujahideen across the country.

Bashar had motivated the 14 accused who were lodged in the barracks nearest to the drainage pipeline, to dig the tunnel so that they could escape easily. The long piece of cloth (lungi) used by the culprits to go down the tunnel belonged to Bashar, the police said.

Police Inspector RG Jadeja and his team questioned Bashar for six hours in the Sabarmati jail. The police learnt that Bashar had sat for hours with many of the culprits to encourage them to dig the tunnel. The ultimate aim was to help Bashar escape from the Sabarmati jail. The police will soon question other accused.

DCB has not ruled out the possibility of there being a connection between the terror letter received by the police recently and the digging of tunnel. In the letter, a threat had been made about bomb blasts that would be carried out at five different locations.

On Tuesday, Sabarmati jail was thronged by DCB officials as well as personnel of other agencies. Dr Jyotshna Yagnik, special judge, bomb blasts case, also visited the jail.